TRUE STAR TREK® TRIVIA
When asked if there were any episodes of the original Star Trek that he didn’t like, Robert H. Justman, one of the producers of the series, said, “I love them all … even the much-maligned ‘Spock’s Brain.’” But there was one First Season episode he and fellow producers Gene Roddenberry and Gene Coon did not want to deliver to NBC. What episode do you think it was?
Answer:
"The Alternative Factor" was an episode Roddenberry, Coon, and Justman all wanted to bury.
Why? Nearly everything went wrong. And it all started with the story. The memos were flying between Roddenberry, Coon and Justman as this one was being developed by veteran television writer Don Ingalls.
Gene Coon wrote to Roddenberry, “This outline is so sketchy that we have no specific idea of what kind of action, story line, movement, motivation we are in for.... Don’t misunderstand this memo. I love the idea of Ahab pursuing the whale, which turns out to be himself. I love the idea of alternate worlds, of the stepping from dimension to dimension. It is simply that there are many things in this outline which must be explained and resolved before we go to screenplay.”
Justman wrote to Roddenberry, “I have just read this story premise. I am extremely confused. I have just read Gene Coon’s memo on the premise. I agree with everything he says. I find that he seems less confused than I do. I congratulate him.”
Roddenberry wrote back to Coon, “I am in a state of confusion over the whole story and not quite sure who is doing what to who. But I am sure Kirk is not doing much to resolve the story.... Don [Ingalls] is rather vague about a good many sections of the action and progression in this story. Recommend he come back with a more explicit and definitive version.”
Ingalls did. Roddenberry again wrote to Coon, this time saying, “I still cannot easily follow Lazarus ‘good’ and Lazarus ‘bad’ and who’s really where. The audience has to know who’s who and who’s where at all times…. Kirk is leading another search party. This is all he seems to do in this story. Let’s get him really involved. There has got to be some jeopardy and danger to our people. So far we’ve just been walking through this piece.”
Justman recommended they “cut the assignment off” and toss the script out. But then something happened. The NBC executive they answered to sent Coon a memo saying that he found “The Alternative Factor” to be “a very fine story outline,” and added, “If the writer of this outline, Don Ingalls, instills the same exciting elements and sheer beauty of writing into the screenplay as are contained in this treatment, this should make for a fine Star Trek episode.”
With the network behind the episode, it was no longer an option to pull the plug.
A few days later, Justman wrote to Coon, “I have ambivalent feelings about the Story Treatment…. As we begin to find out more about the story and about Lazarus, I find my interest waning rather rapidly. Also, the more we know about Lazarus and his counterpart, the more confusing the story becomes to me.... I see that you have already put Mr. Ingalls to work on a First Draft screenplay. Therefore, I will reserve any further comment until he turns in this draft.”
More problems came with the script, and then the casting, and then the production. Read an excerpt about the filming of "The Alternative Factor" from These are the Voyages - The True Story of Star Trek: The Original Series, Season One, on this website, and see how it went from bad to worse.
"The Alternative Factor" was an episode Roddenberry, Coon, and Justman all wanted to bury.
Why? Nearly everything went wrong. And it all started with the story. The memos were flying between Roddenberry, Coon and Justman as this one was being developed by veteran television writer Don Ingalls.
Gene Coon wrote to Roddenberry, “This outline is so sketchy that we have no specific idea of what kind of action, story line, movement, motivation we are in for.... Don’t misunderstand this memo. I love the idea of Ahab pursuing the whale, which turns out to be himself. I love the idea of alternate worlds, of the stepping from dimension to dimension. It is simply that there are many things in this outline which must be explained and resolved before we go to screenplay.”
Justman wrote to Roddenberry, “I have just read this story premise. I am extremely confused. I have just read Gene Coon’s memo on the premise. I agree with everything he says. I find that he seems less confused than I do. I congratulate him.”
Roddenberry wrote back to Coon, “I am in a state of confusion over the whole story and not quite sure who is doing what to who. But I am sure Kirk is not doing much to resolve the story.... Don [Ingalls] is rather vague about a good many sections of the action and progression in this story. Recommend he come back with a more explicit and definitive version.”
Ingalls did. Roddenberry again wrote to Coon, this time saying, “I still cannot easily follow Lazarus ‘good’ and Lazarus ‘bad’ and who’s really where. The audience has to know who’s who and who’s where at all times…. Kirk is leading another search party. This is all he seems to do in this story. Let’s get him really involved. There has got to be some jeopardy and danger to our people. So far we’ve just been walking through this piece.”
Justman recommended they “cut the assignment off” and toss the script out. But then something happened. The NBC executive they answered to sent Coon a memo saying that he found “The Alternative Factor” to be “a very fine story outline,” and added, “If the writer of this outline, Don Ingalls, instills the same exciting elements and sheer beauty of writing into the screenplay as are contained in this treatment, this should make for a fine Star Trek episode.”
With the network behind the episode, it was no longer an option to pull the plug.
A few days later, Justman wrote to Coon, “I have ambivalent feelings about the Story Treatment…. As we begin to find out more about the story and about Lazarus, I find my interest waning rather rapidly. Also, the more we know about Lazarus and his counterpart, the more confusing the story becomes to me.... I see that you have already put Mr. Ingalls to work on a First Draft screenplay. Therefore, I will reserve any further comment until he turns in this draft.”
More problems came with the script, and then the casting, and then the production. Read an excerpt about the filming of "The Alternative Factor" from These are the Voyages - The True Story of Star Trek: The Original Series, Season One, on this website, and see how it went from bad to worse.
